The present invention relates to a seal, commonly referred to as a capsule, which is placed over bottles closed with a cork.
Bottles closed with corks, primarily wine bottles but including bottles holding champagne, spirits, oils, vinegars and the like, usually receive a capsule that is placed over the bottle top to conceal the cork, and in particular its upper, exposed end, to protect the bottle top against contamination, render it tamper-proof, and to give it a more attractive appearance and thereby enhance sales. The present invention is particularly applicable to corked wine bottles, and will be described in relation thereto, because quality wines are sensitive to the manner in which they are stored in the bottle, and this includes the manner in which the cork is protected from the environment while being allowed to breathe. As pointed out, however, it is useful for bottles holding other liquids as well.
As is illustrated in FIG. 1, conventional wine bottles have a relatively thin-walled bottle neck (to reduce the amount of glass and thereby save costs) which terminates in a narrow pouring surface 4 that surrounds the bottle opening. A cork 6 in the opening protects the wine in the bottle until use. A capsule 8, typically made of an inert metal such as Tin or a plastic-metal foil laminate, is placed over the bottle top after the insertion of the cork and spun against the exterior of the bottle. It protects the cork against contamination and tampering and gives the bottle a more attractive appearance by hiding from view the fill line of the bottle (to which the wine is filled) and the lower end of the cork, which are considered unattractive. It is extensively used to enhance the overall appearance of the bottle by applying color, design and printing onto it.
Such wine bottles have a narrow flange some distance below the pouring surface of the bottle which retains the capsule on the bottle. The flange also forms a ledge along which the top portion of the capsule can easily be cut from a remainder thereof just prior to use to bare the pouring surface and so that the cork could be pulled from the bottle opening.
Wine bottles are frequently opened with levered corkscrews which have an arm that rests against the pouring surface when the cork is pulled. This creates high, localized surface pressures on the pouring surface which can damage it; e.g. by chipping portions of the glass. For a variety of reasons, including a potential danger of injuries, this is highly undesirable.
To alleviate this problem, wine bottles with an enlarged top flange 10 as illustrated in prior art FIG. 2 have recently come into use. The top flange has a larger diameter than the remainder of the bottle neck, is relatively thick (typically at least about 5 mm), and presents a much larger pouring surface 4. As a result, damage to the pouring surface during cork removal has been greatly reduced if not eliminated altogether. However, the enlarged top flange made it much more difficult to protect the bottle top in general and the pouring surface and the cork in particular since the conventional way of applying a capsule can no longer be used.
The large undercut 12 formed by top flange 10 prevents conventional metallic bottle capsules from being spun onto the bottle. To nevertheless provide a measure of protection, a protective metal seal disk 14 was dropped into the bottle opening and secured to the top surface of the cork with a layer of beeswax, or a wax or paraffin seal was placed into the bottle opening so that it is substantially flush with the pouring surface. Neither, however, adequately protects the cork and therewith the contents of the bottle since they are relatively easy to remove. This raises the danger that sealing disks or wax seals can become accidentally lost, which subjects the cork and therewith the contents of the bottle to potential contamination, or intentionally removed, permitting a tampering with the cork and/or the contents of the bottle, and thereafter be replaced, which might prevent a detection of the tampering. In addition, the layer of beeswax, or the paraffin seal, isolates the cork from the air, which, over time, can compromise the quality of the wine in the bottle.
Moreover, the pouring surface of the bottle remains unprotected at all times and, for appearance purposes, the absence of a capsule makes it necessary to apply an opaque band, such as an adhesive paper band 16, about the bottle neck to hide the fill line and the lower end of the cork from view. The application of the band is relatively burdensome because the band is typically imprinted and/or decorated and its relative positioning on the bottle must be coordinated with the positioning of the labels (front and back) to assure the desired overall appearance of the bottle. This requires relatively sophisticated and, therefore, expensive machinery for finishing the bottles on automatic bottling lines and increases bottling costs.